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DISCOURSE, 

OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF 

GEIY. WILLIAM HENRY MARRISOJV, 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE CITIZENS OF BURLINGTON AND VICINITT, 

MAY, 1841, 
BY JOHN \V H E E r^ E R, 

President of the University of Vermont. 



BURLINGTON : 

CIIAUNCEY GOODRICH 

1841. 






ADVERTISEMENT. 



The author has availed himself of the opportunity, arising from a re- 
quest to repeat the discourse in another place, to rewrite, to some extent, 
the notice of the character of the late President. 



DISCOURSE. 



Psalm 46:10. 



Be still and know that i am god, i will he exalted among the 
heathen, i will be exalted in t!ie earth. 

We are assembled, fellow citizens, to offer the last tokens 
of respect to our departed chief magistrate ; and to consider 
the lessons of solemn instruction derived from his sudden 
and unexpected death. Whatever difference of opinion we 
may have had concerning him, before his election, the mo- 
ment he assumed the insignia of office, and was declared 
President of the United States, he was no longer the 
simple citizen concerning whom there had been a sharp con- 
troversy, but the supreme executive of law in the land. The 
feelings of reverence, which every good man bears to the 
constitution of the country, as its highest declared law, and 
to the just institutions and statutes emanating from it, then 
gathered itself about this man. as the more outward and visi- 
ble organ through whom we were to receive the high bene- 
fits of our united governments. Our interests of property, of 
family, of national honor, of happiness, and of life itself, 
were, for the time, placed in his hands, as the personage 
whom the law constituted protector, and keeper of them all. 
Before this, many loved the man for his frank simplicity and 
freedom from all ostentation, for his benignity and conde- 
scension to the most humble, for his spontaneous and unwea- 
ried benevolence, for his incorruptible honesty in every pecu- 



4 

niary trust, for his ready, constant,and unwavering devotion to 
his country, for his pure and simple Christian faith, and for a 
beautiful union of private excellence with public virtue, that 
has rarely been equalled, and perhaps never surpassed, among 
our citizens. But when he was invested with the robe of 
state, and sat down in the highest seat of authority, he as- 
sumed before us a new character, and we all did him rever- 
ence as the minister of the law for the highest good to the 
nation. We all looked to him, as the common centre and 
head of the people, and felt ourselves to be one by our union 
together under him. 

It is because he was thus regarded, that his sudden death 
has given such a siiock to the whole nation, filling every city, 
and village, and hamlet, and habitation with sorrow. When 
it was said, " the President is dead,'' it was felt like the elec- 
tric power from the centre to the circumference of the land ; 
" the man of business dropped his pen — the artisan dropped 
his tools — the scholar closed his book — children looked up 
to their parents, and wives to the countenances of their hus- 
bands, and the wail of sorrow rose, as if each had lost a pa- 
rent, or some near and dear friend." 

This deep and universal feeling, which now pervades our 
country, is grounded in that common but mysterious rever- 
ence for law, which belongs to every reflecting mind. This 
reverence has made the death of the chief ruler, or minister 
of the law, of every nation, a solemn and awful event ; an 
event to be marked by tiie most serious and reverent ceremo- 
nies, and by the most solemn and unaftected tokens of grief ; 
an event to be recorded in its history, and to mark an era 
in its existence, among the nations. No matter what might 
have been the form of the government, no matter what the 
circumstances of the nation, the death of its ruler makes a 
pause in ir, as though paralysis had struck its thousand em- 
ployments ; or as though the angel of death had poured his 
yial.s upon the whole people. And such it should be ; for, at 



the moment of the blow, it is as though law itself were dead 
and the great cord of social existence broken in sunder. 
That it is not so, and that there is that, which still liveth,we bear 
witness to ourselves by the solemn respect we pay to the de- 
parted, by the reverent feelings we indulge, and especially by 
the law and the order we call to our aid in our formal proces- 
sions, in our outward arrangements of honor,and in our habili- 
ments of mourning. These all become inward and outward 
testimonies, that in the midst of death there is life ; life 
which still recognizes our social unity, by the common forms 
of sorrow which we assume, and by their quiet and orderly 
arrangement. And were it not that there are deeper princi- 
ples within us, displayed by reverence for law, as that by 
which we have been and ever ought to be governed, deeper 
principles than mere instincts, and stronger forces than our 
conventional agreements, and our formal arrangements, 
which we call compacts, were there not something stronger 
than all these, we should be, when our head is struck down, 
like that community of insects, which, when the head is de- 
stroyed, the commonwealth is broken up; disunion, disorga- 
nization, and, finally, universal death ensue. Well and of 
good right, therefore, lias our nation poured forth and is still 
pouring forth her expressions of bereavement and sorrow. 

" How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of rejoicing ; 
how is she become as a widow ; she that was great amon^ 
the nations and prince among the provinces, she weepeth 
sore in the night, and her tears are upon her cheeks. Her 
priests sigh, her virgins are afilictcd, and s!ic is in bitter- 
ness." 

It is in the way, I have pointed out, that the death of the 
chief ruler of a country reveals to a reflecting people the 
ground of that government, on which they depend for the se- 
curity of all their earthly interests. In the shock they receive, I 
have said, each suffers in the bereavement, as though a near 
and dear friend had fallen, and thus makes it manifest that 
there is, in the bosom of each, the ground of reverent re- 



gard for that, for which the ruler existed, viz ; for the law of 
which he was the organ and administrator. The ready and 
the formal manner in which tiiis multitude have assembled, 
which is indeed but a re})resentation of the manner of the 
whole people, to express their grief, and to speak of their be- 
reavement, shows the deep feeling that pervades every bo- 
som. We are not here by the command of any earthly au- 
thority, fearful of terrible consequences to ourselves or to 
others, if we do not come. But we come from those sponta- 
neous feelings of the heart, which are not to be repressed or 
frowned into silence, but which imperiously demand some 
outward and public expression of love and reverent regard 
for that law and order of which our departed ruler was to us 
the organ and expression. It is not a private and personal af- 
fair, at all, that has brought us together ; it is not a partizan 
object ; it is not a statute of the land, nor even a precedent, 
in this country ; it is the solemn feeling of respect, in the 
bosom of all of us and of each of us, towards our consti- 
tuted guardian of life and liberty, of law and order. It is 
this feeling, which leads us to assemble, in circumstances of 
joy, to rejoice in harmonious unity ; and wliich, on occasions 
of danger, leads us to assemble for mutual consultation and 
protection ; and which, on occasions of sorrow, as this day, 
draws us together to sympathize and to express our common 
griefs in a common and united way. It is this feeling in each 
and all of us, which naturally and necessarily leads to the ex- 
istence of the social state ; and which, under the direction of 
that feeling of accountablcness to right, or that idea of jus- 
tice, which all men profess, impels them naturally and neces- 
sarily, to the formation of political and civil government. It 
may be called by various names, as the social feeling, as the 
law of social existence, or, if regarded froni another position, 
and spoken of not in relation to the spontaneous expressions 
of mere social desire, but in relation to civil and political in- 
stitutions, it may be said to be the feeling of accountable- 
nepg applied to mutual intercourse, or the idea of justice de- 



veloping itself in human institutions, and applying itself to 
human exigencies. Its name is of small consequence ; its re- 
ality is essential to the existence of the social state, and to 
the institutions of society. Its existence in our minds, and 
its manifestation in our habits would be a practical rebuke 
to all who did not join us ; we should cast them forth not by 
a statute or by force, but because they were without this law 
of social existence — they would be law-less. Henceforth 
they would eschew the expressions and tokens of social life, 
and withdraw from the law that urges us to unite our fortunes 
together in joy, in danger, in prosperity, in sorrow and in be- 
reavement. If a human being, so denying social existence, 
could be supposed actually to exist, he would, henceforth be- 
come like Cain, a wanderer in the earth ; and it would come 
to pass, that whosoever should meet him would slay him, as 
an enemy to the race. 

The political and civil institutions and regulations of a 
country have, for their object, the developement and egress 
of this social feeling, so thai there may be produced the high- 
est happines, the greatest purity, and the most just and ele- 
vated character in the nation. These institutions and regu- 
lations may assume any particular form, which the people 
may choose, or their peculiar circumstances demand. Dif- 
ferent nations may have different forms, and the same nation 
different forms at different periods, and still have the same 
object in view, and be governed by the same principles in 
seeking that object. As the essential character of religion 
is not created by its outward forms and ceremonies or its ec- 
clesiastical organization and rules, but may be found in every 
nation in him, " who feareth God and worketh righteous- 
ness," so the essential character of a State is not created by 
its outward forms, its public institutions and regulations, but 
by that social feeling, that knits men together in mutual in- 
tercourse, that each may give and receiv3 that which justice 
permits and enjoins. Government is thus essential to the 
existence of society, and no company of human beings can 



live together without it. It does not spring from the will of 
the strongest, nor out of the authority of the most knowing; 
nor does it come from tradition, nor the accidental circum- 
stances of birth, but from thnt inward law, which, as the 
voice of God, enjoins social existence on all human beings, 
under a sense of responsibleness to justice and equity. 

Moreover, it is not true that the freedom of a State is de- 
rived from any particular form of government, any more 
than that the essential character of the State is. Its freedom 
consists in the natural going forth of the social feeling — the 
spontaneous egress of the law of social existence — in all mu- 
tual intercourse under sr.ch particular directions, as perfect 
justice prescribes for securing the happiness, and elevating 
the character of the people. These laws and regulations 
may be found under one form of government as really, I do 
not say as naturally, as under another form. And their destruc- 
tion or violation may, in certain circumstances, be found un- 
der one form, as really as under another. To sit under one's 
own vine and fig tree, with none to molest or make afraid, 
and to foil ow, without let or hindrance, the honest and pure 
desires of the heart, as one may choose, does not belong ex- 
clusively to one age, or to one government. It is found in 
every age in some quiet spots, and under various forms of 
government. And to feel both life and property to be inse- 
cure, and to be held, not of right, but at the mercy of the 
absolute and irresponsible authority of others, has been the 
wretched and unhappy condition of multitudes in all ages, 
and under all the varieties of social organization. The crimes 
of the " bloody Mary," or of Csesar Borgia, will find their 
parallel in the Athenian Democracy, banishing some of her 
wisest and most incorruptible citizens, and poisoning some of 
the purest and most enlightened statesmen and philosophers 
the world ever saw ; or, in a Parisian populace, crowding its 
prisons and feeding the axe of the executioner with the pur- 
est and noblest blood of the nation, in the name of liberty 
and of equal rights. Extremes are easily brought together, 



9 

and a multitude of men, clamorous for some object, which 
their excited passions demand, will take the advice of,and give 
the lead to the most ardent and daring will in their company, 
and be driven on, they scarcely know how,to the accomplish- 
ment of their purpose. And the most violent and self-willed 
man, finding, or having excited the people about him, will 
guide them to suit his own purposes. It is thus, that ex- 
tremes meet; and the man of the multitude may become the 
tyrant of the multitude. It is the certainty of this, that led 
the most accurate historians and the most philosophic minds 
of antiquity, many of whom wrote in the midst of free in- 
stitutions, to affirm that the demagogue and the tyrant were 
of the democracy and ranked themselves with it : that is, 
that they sought to break down every man, that by wisdom 
and intelligence or accidental circumstances, was distinguish- 
ed above the mass of society, that they might rule the mass 
at their will, and make it do their bidding. This is as true, 
in our day, as in the palmy periods of Greece and Rome, and 
we have known as lamentable illustrations of it. Pisastratus, 
Julius Cassar, Cromwell, Robespierre and Napoleon were of 
the popular parties of the day. 

A most despotic government may, for the time being, be 
under the guidance of a wise and enlightened monarch, who 
shall advance, by all means in his power, the best interests 
of the people. An absolute government is not necessarily 
destructive of the ends for which government exists, al- 
though, whatever may be its outward form, it contains the 
seeds of tyranny in its irresponsible character, and its uncon- 
trolled will. The most absolute monarch, perhaps, in Eu- 
rope has, during his reign, which has just closed, commenced 
a series of unexampled reforms, in the administration of jus- 
tice, in the economy of the royal household, in making his 
subjects freeholders in the soil, and in organizing his army of 
citizens, and therefore not independent of the people. He 
declares that " the new system is based upon the prin- 
ciple, that every subject, personally free, be able to raise 

2 



10 

himself, and develope his powers freely, without let or hin- 
drance from any other ; that the public burdens be borne in 
common and just proportions ; that equality, before the law 
be secured to every subject ; that justice be rigidly and punc- 
tually administered ; that merit, in whatsoever rank it may 
be found, be enabled to rise without obstacle; that the govern- 
ment be carried on with unity, order and power ; and that, 
by the education of the people, and the spread of true reli- 
gion, the general interests, and a national spirit be pro- 
moted, as the only secure basis of the national welfare." 

Higher and better objects could scarcely be proposed by 
any government, and if carried out with efficiency and integ- 
rity, there would be the greatest security for personal liberty 
and for the rights of property, although those of citizenship 
would be partially denied. A strong objection to such forms 
would always exist, however w^ell the government might be 
administered for the tim e being,because they contain no 
provision by which such administration can be secured from 
time to time, without destructive revolutions. A more funda- 
mental objection to them, if the nation is supposed to be well 
enough instructed to guide itself,is, that the social feeling of the 
nation is not consulted, and cannot have its natural and free 
egress. Society becomes artificial in its forms and manners ; 
and orders itself, according to the peculiarities of a single 
mind, or a small class of minds, and in the end, the govern- 
ment becomes a practical, if not a conscious denial to the ci- 
tizen of his free right to " life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness." This cannot but produce a dwarfish effect up- 
on the national mind, depriving it of that free and vigorous 
feeling, that fresh and active spirit, which spontaneously 
strives for the most worthy ends by the most noble means. 
This spirit is worthy to be cultivated even at the risk of many 
evils. Although the " fierce democracy of Athens" was ter- 
ribly unjust and utterly regardless of the rights and character 
of many of her best and worthiest citizens, yet like a too 



11 

luxuriant plant, it seemed, at times, to pour out of itself the 
most rich and beautiful foliage, and to give joyful hope of ma- 
ture and glorious fruit. It, however, only exhausted itself, and 
brought on premature decay and suicidal destruction. This 
feeUng ought not, therefore, to be strangled by the form of 
government. It is the strong foundation of national charac- 
ter, and, healtiifully directed, will shoot forth in great and at- 
tractive beauty. While, therefore, we should cherish, on the 
one hand, the active developement of this national feeling, 
every good man will strive, on the other, to restrain and to 
order it by the perfect law of righteousness, lest it assume 
the ministry of destruction, and, having destroyed every good 
institution in society, finally destroy itself, by a leap into the 
arms of despotism. 

Thus it is, that the freedom of a state does not arise from 
its form of government, but from its action being such, that 
the social feelings of the nation, in their best and widest sense, 
are most freely, and most equitably expressed. This 
should be attempted only under the condition of sufficient 
knowledge to do it with intelligence and under permanent le- 
gal forms. For it is surely better for those, who cannot take 
care of themselves, that others should care for them, than 
that they should be left to vegetate in barbarism and brutali- 
ty. It is necessary, therefore, that the form of government, 
rightfully to develope the social feelings of the nation, should 
be such, as not only to secure the personal rights of the peo- 
ple, and their rights of property, but their rights as citizens, 
that is, their participation in the legislative power. For it is 
through this, that the spirit of the people, the social feeling 
of the nation expresses itself; awaking a happy contented- 
ness and an unseen joy, in the conscious adaptation of the 
statutes to the exercise and expression of the national spirit, 
and the national feeling. It is in this way that a representa- 
tive government, one that represents in its forms of business, 
and in the spirit of its laws, the characte rand the feelings of 



12 

the nation, is the only government, which freedom and liber- 
ty can desire, or which an enlightened patriot can seek for its 
own sake, or can endure, except from an iron-hearted neces- 
sity. 

The rise of parties in our country, seems to have sprung, 
in a great degree, from two sources ; 1, From a misconcep- 
tion of the foundation of government itself ; and 2. From 
considering only the external forms, which government has 
assumed. Many writers, in speaking of its foundation, con- 
sidered it a compact, or conventional agreement between the 
States, or the individuals composing the States, concerning 
which men might, of good right, have different, or even op- 
posite opinions. This overlooked, to a great extent, that ever 
existent social feeling in man, which constantly seeks to ex- 
press itself by some unity of law or of personal head, that 
shall make all to live and move as a harmonious company ; 
and which seeks the outward form of legislative and execu- 
tive power only that it may justly and truly attain the securi- 
ty, the happiness, and the excellence which, under a sense of 
justice, it seeks as its true and proper end. By neglecting to 
regard this, or not honestly seeking to follow it, come many of 
the evils of party spirit. The view which was taken, con- 
fined the origin of government to the compact or conven- 
tional agreement, and then it was classified among the exis- 
ting forms of government in the world ; of which there are 
usually said to be three, monarchy, aristocracy, and democra- 
cy. But our government was not either of these. The 
question then was, towards vv^hich will it tend in its workings ? 
Will it be democratic? Will it be aristocratic? or, will it 
be monarchical ? And the men of the Revolution woke up 
from a common union, in which they fought, side by side, 
against a common foe, to battle it with fury and hate against 
each other. You are for democracy, it was said ; and you 
for aristocracy ; and you for monarchy ! This has been hand- 
ed down from sire to son ; and the same party names and 



13 

party epithets, like invincible soldiers, make their regular ap- 
pearance in the field, on each electioneering campaign. 

There is certainly a more just and honest way of looking 
at this subject ; and one which this solemn and affecting oc- 
casion points out, by making us sensible of a common ground 
of grief independent of our political parties, as the way of 
peace and harmony. And this is, in the first place, to have 
done with considering that our government was organized 
after any of these forms, or that it has any exclusive tenden- 
cy to any one of them. And in the second place, consider 
it as organized to secure our rights as men, viz : our per- 
sonal security, and our rights of property, and also our rights 
as citizens, viz : a participation in the legislative power by re- 
presentation, which shall make us one in the spirit of our 
laws, and in the simplicity and unity of our national ac- 
tion.* 

There is, then, a deeper and more solemn view of this 
subject, which is brought before us by this affecting occa- 
sion, and that is, that there is a pulse of social feeling in so- 
ciety, independent of all or any of these forms of government; 
a feeling from which no one can divest himself except by 
renouncing existence in human society ; a feeling, which is 
distinctly called into conscious life by the event, which has 
called us together ; and this working consciously or uncon- 
ciously has led to the formation of a government and now 
constitutes its sustaining strength. It is not sustained by 
its forms. They are created and sustained by this feeling. 
A paper called the Declaration of Independence, or another 
called the Constitution does not sustain the government, nor 
does it abide because it tends to democracy or to aristocracy 
or to monarchy. It has a deeper foundation than all in the 
hearts, and consciences of the people. The universal shock, 
that has passed through the land, is because the cold finger 
of death has touched the nerve that unites us together, and 
made us shudder at the possibility of its paralysis. By the form 
of our government, we have given the most free and full in- 



14 

flenceto this social feeling, upon all the institutions of the 
country. Universal suffrage brings it to act upon the whole 
structure and action of society in its civil and political forms. 
It thus becomes a perennial fountain to supply the nation 
with vigorous hope, and with unceasing activity. To that very 
hope and to that very enterprising activity, the demogogue 
and the man of tyrannical will must apply themselves, if they 
would attain their selfish and guilty objects. They will, 
therefore, press our hopes into bright but unreal nnaginings, 
and our enterprize and activity, they will urge until we loose 
all security and permanence in a heedless rush after a condi- 
tion, not of equality before law, but of likeness and similarity 
in outward circumstances, which is unattainable within the 
limits of human existence. Our only hope then is in re- 
quiring with great earnestness and severity, that the social 
feehngofthe nation shall order itself according to justice, 
and by the rules, that the supreme laws of the land prescribe. 
Every good man is called upon to lay aside party bickerings 
and to watch and to pray, that justice and judgment may 
be the stability of our times. 

The man, whose death we this day deplore, brought to his 
high office a most uncommon share of sympathy with the 
common mind. The essential qualities of humanity seem to 
have made his bosom their peculiar residence; and 
he was, therefore ; far beyond most good men, in the 
interior of his heart, the just and adequate represen- 
tative of the national feeling. The men, who had be- 
come, by choice or by accident, the leaders of party, 
the nation rejected ; and called him from his private minis- 
trations of benevolent kindness, and from the quiet of his 
agricultural pursuits to guide and to keep, in like spirit, her 
high interests. How far from all bitterness and party rancor 
does his interview with his predecessor show him to have 
been, in which with great simplicity he said, " I never gave 
an office to a relative, nor asked one, but if now you will 
send a grandson, whose only inlicritence is his (luher's name, 



15 

and sword, which has been well used in his country's ser- 
vice to the military school, it will be a favor indeed." None 
of tiie angry feelings of the day were his. He came at the 
bidding of the nation, not to destroy, but to fulfil. 

May we not yet hope, that in coming years men shall 
arise to bless the nation with a clearness of intellectual vi- 
sion and a depth of consciencious feeling, which shall make 
them safe guards, not to a party, but to the nation ; men, by 
whose wise measures and whose vigorous efforts intrigue 
shall be disappointed, selfishness rebuked, and party strife 
quenched. 

In turning our attention from the political lessons, which 
this event teaches, we cannot but recognize in it, the hand 
of Almighty God. The chief ruler of the country has been 
smitten down before our eyes ; and it has been by the power 
of him by whom, "Kings reign and princes decree justice." 
It is but a brief space of time since the joyful pageant of 
thousands of our citizens was seen, thronging our streets to 
nominate him for President. So high were their expectations, 
that they seemed almost welcoming him before hand to his 
high station, and associating, with his name and official pow- 
er, the security of their interests and the realization of the 
choicest hopes of their patriotism. This feeling, which rose 
up in the midst of us, came also, like the rising and onward 
rush of a mighty tide, from all parts of our country, and 
commingling, bore on its swelling bosom the objects of its 
hopes. Around the Capitol, it comes to its fulness, and de- 
positing there its cherished treasure, it retired in gentle mur- 
murs to its native fountains, the hearths and the hearts of the 
citizens. Then with what deep and intense interest all 
looked upon the forms and ceremonies of the fourth of March, 
those last and highest channels through which the national 
feeling could express itself towards the man of its ciioice. 
How we all felt ourselves to be represented by the mass of 
men, which thronged the avenues, and courts, and aisles of 



16 

the Capitol, witlvjubilant feeling ; and rent the air with the 
spontaneous expressions of men., who were free, and who, 
irrespective of sectional, or of party animosity, rejoiced in 
this token of their freedom. With what deep and exhilara- 
ting feelings of satisfaction and of peace the nation listened 
to the calm and benignant sentiments of truth and justice, 
that were uttered by him, on the day,' in which as its ruler, 
he, calling God to witness, opened his heart for its inspection, 
and spoke of what the rulev of a free people should be, and 
what he should do. These sentiments had scarcely passed 
from his lips, and the feeling of joy"and of hope, which they 
inspired, was yet warm in the heart, when behold 1 the can- 
dlestick is removed oat of its place, the fire has gone out on 
the high altar of the country ; and lo, the sanctuary of power 
is enveloped in darkness ! It is the hand of Him, who worketh 
in the mysterious silence of inscrutible providence. Hark ! 
The voice, from within the veil, cries unto us ; " Put not your 
trust in princes, nor in the son of man in whom there is no 
help. His breath goest forth, and he returneth to his earth." 
" Be still ; and know that I am God. I will be exalted 
among the heathen ; I will be exalted in the earth." 

Tiius it is we live, not merely under the constitution of 
this country and the government, which it establishes, but 
there is a higher and wider-reaching kingdom, which compre- 
hends us, but as an item within its domain. Kings, princes, 
governments, nations are but its ministers. Revolutions, 
changes, distress of nations are but its means. Thrones, 
dynasties, empires rise and shadow forth their power and 
then sink to darkness and oblivion, while it holds on its eter- 
nal and undisturbed way. This is the government, that 
speaks unto us in this its providence ; and says to the nation 
the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy 
ways, thou hast not glorified. But when the man, on whom 
our hearts had leaned, as our stay and support, is struck 
down, and so struck as to show, that the desires of a mighty 
nation are rebuked, and the prayers of sincere worshippers 



17 

are denied, and ihe confiding hope of innumerable multitudes 
are scattered at the grave's mouth, whose conscience does 
not respond, alas! alas! we have not glorified. God in whose 
hand our breath is, but we have trusted in an arm of flesh. 
We have called these Gods, but behold ; they die like men. ^ 
In surveying the history of our country, for the last six 
years, we can see disaster after disaster has followed the na- 
tion, and filled every part of it with lamentation and sorrow. 
While there has been comparatively little suffering from de- 
privation of the necessaries of life, our hopes of prosperity 
have been blighted, our means of enjoyment have been cur- 
tailed, and our ability to fulfil our honest intentions has been 
destroyed. It is not merely, that the business of life has been 
fluctuating and unstable, but coming events have defied the 
forecast of the wisest prudence ; the foolishness and the wis- 
dom of this world have been alike baffled. This has effected, 
not merely our outward condition, but apparently the hones- 
ty and good faith of mutual intercourse, and has often placed 
the just and the upright, side by side, with the unjust and the 
deceiver and merged them in one common condemnation. 
Nor has this been confined to the mutual relations of our own 
country, but we are more or less dishonoured before the world, 
by our commercial and financial embarassraents ; and have 
our name repeated as evil, in the marts of commerce, and in 
the high places of the earth. And, if not a bye word, we are 
almost a reproach among the nations. Calamities have in- 
deed fallen upon us. Fire has wasted many of our beauti- 
ful places ; floods have swept away our wealth ; the ocean has 
swallowed up our riches, and many of our States are ready 
to sink under embarrassments. And now the entanglements 
of our foreign relations, send streaming up the horizon, the 
meteor signals of war ; and God has taken our great Captain 
from us. O, let us be instructed by these providences, lest 
at last He rule us with a rod of iron, and dash us in pieces 
as a potter's vessel. We were on the topmost wave of pros- 
perity, and had become giddy with our high elevation. Our 
vanity and our pride were expanding in every direction. In- 

3 



18 

stead of saying, behold, we count those happy, which en- 
dure, we eschewed such sentiments, counting those the most 
happy, whose hopes were the most gorgeous, and whose ex- 
pectations were the most extravagant. In this day of pros- 
perity, the very charities of tlie nation began to be sa- 
crilegiously withdrawn from their pure purposes, that we 
might gild the earthly castles of our hopes with unknown 
magnificence and sj)lendor. This was our condition, when 
financial embarrassments commenced, and our hopes were 
changed to fears. Some ascribed the difficulty to the per- 
plexities of an over-done foreign commerce, some to a fever- 
ish rage to acquire wealth without labor, by what is called 
speculation, some to what they called the injudicious action 
of the government in changing its fiscal arrangements, and 
some to a reckless expansion of the currency. Every thing, 
as cause or effect, seemed to combine to induce perplexity 
and distress ; various schemes were proposed ; experiments 
were tried, and temporary expedients resorted to every where 
to keep up our visionary hopes. Thus the nation has gone 
on for the last six years without thinking of, much less under- 
standing its moral condition, and has only plunged deeper 
and deeper into sorrow, without returning, and humbling it- 
self before God. It has not understood its moral condition. 
Who does not know that human nature, in a course of un- 
humbled prosperity, gives rein to its desires until its hopes be- 
come irrational, and its expectations alarming from their very 
extravagance and absurdity. Let then any cause, so small 
perhaps as to be unnoticed, which shall shew these hopes to be 
without substance ; and solicitude and fear will take the place 
of hope, and the whole horizon appear filled with objects of 
distrust and jealousy. To reason a man or a nation out of 
such a state is impossible. Every th:ng that can be said is 
only food for its jealousy. The state itself is not produced 
by reasoning and, therefore, we are not to be reasoned out 
of it. The nation needs to be held quiet and still by suffer- 
ing, before it will know its own condition. It needs to feel 



19 

the rod before it will lie down humbled and subdued ; and 
then new hope may be created out of humility, and confi- 
dence in an overruling providence. Be still ; have done 
with your devices and expedients, be still and know ; reflect, 
until you understand, that there is a God, wiio rules over all, 
and who will be exalted in the earth. But the nation would 
not be still. Goaded on by disappointment and by suffering, 
it compounded all the materials of excitement into one great 
mass and, gathering strength from every quarter, rushed on 
to accomplish its purpose. It never paused, but bore on 
with irresistable power the man of its choice, nor 
stayed until it placed him in his seat, and gave him the scep- 
tre of authority. He wielded it for a day. And then the 
king of terrors seized him. And now one ruleih over us, 
whom no man intended should rule, and no man expected 
would rule. The one party is driven forth from place and from 
power, while th^ other, occupying their place and their station, 
find, at the moment of their elevation, an unseen hand re- 
moving their head from his station, and giving it to whomso- 
ever it listeth. " Be still, and know that I am God ; I will 
be exalted in the earth." 

This is to us all a most emphatic lesson, teaching us that 
after all our eff'orts, and all our most cherished desires, there 
is still an authority, that rules according to its own wisdom 
and righteousness, in all our affairs. That struggle as we 
may to accomplish our personal, or our national purposes we 
are every moment liable to have our best plans frustrated, 
and the most universal expectations disappointed. No de- 
vices of man can compass the wisdom of God. And no 
man, and no nation can prosper for a long time whilst they 
contemn or disregard a government, which holds them, in 
its hand, as instruments of its sovereign pleasure, and of its 
universal providence. However then wicked and cunning 
men may boast themselves of their devices : and however 
partizans may calculate upon their successes, the government 
of God will treat them as chaff" before the whirlwind. When 



20 

they look for safety, behold, sudden destruction. " If the 
people imagine a vain thing and if the kings of the earth set 
themselves, and the rulers take council together, He that 
sitteth in the heavens shall laugh : The Lord shall have 
them in derision. He taketh the cunning in their own crafti- 
ness." 

In calling attention more particularly to the character of 
our late President; it is worthy of remark, that he is more inter- 
woven with the history of the country, by a variety of public 
events, than that of any President, since the days of 
Washington. Since his death special attention has been 
given to acquire a knowledge of him, as exhibited in histori- 
cal sketches, and in those facts and incidents, which liave been 
spread before the community. The common, if not the uni- 
versal feeling is, that the superiority of his character was not 
understood even by most of those, who sought his elevation 
to office. It is a melancholy circumstance, that such is 
the prostitution of the public press, and such the reckless- 
ness of party, displayed in unmeaning eulogy, or in indis- 
criminate and unmeasured condemnation, that a quiet and 
reflecting man turns in disgust, alike from the fulsome flat- 
teries and the careless censures, which are heaped upon all, 
who are placed before the public for high stations. We 
are often obliged to wait until the grave has closed over our 
patriots before we can understand their characters, much less 
estimate their worth. 

General Harrison possessed naturally an inward hilarity of 
feeling, which, in connection with his pure intentions made 
goodness a spontaneous play-fellow in hjs mind ; a hilarity 
of feeling, which belonged to his family, and was possessed 
in such degree by that noble ancestor of his, who dared, in 
the defence of liberty and law, to place his foot upon the neck 
of Charles the 1st, that a familiar acquaintance says of him, 
that he was " naturally of such a vivacity, hilarity and alacri- 
ty as another man hath, when he hath drunken a cup too 
much."* It was this quality of his natural character, that led 

* Richard Baxter. 



21 

him to seek from every one that approbation of his own con- 
duct, which calls up, and gives expression to joyous feeling ; 
and to deprecate that censure and reproach, which produces 
hate and wrath,, or disappointment and disgust. He was 
uncommonly sensitive to public favor. His mind yearned 
for its sunshine, as its natural element of joy. There was 
no love of power for its own sake, or to gratify selfish or 
ambitious views. Every public interest w^as perfectly safe in 
his hands. He had opportunities of amassing boundless 
wealth, in his public trusts, but he came out of them poor, by 
his generosity, and fidelity. He could have placed his fami-^ 
ly in situations of eminence and wealth, but he scrupulously 
avoided every appearance of selfish aggrandizement, by their 
exaltation. Still he delighted in the approbation of all men, 
for it produced in them that gladness of mind nearest resem^ 
blinghis own spontaneous and joyous feeling; and did, as it 
were, nmltiply and extend the spirit of his own heart far 
and wide. This was the ground of his popularity, and it 
made him not a partizan, but a man of charity, even towards 
his opponents; and of kindly and benevolent feeling in his 
daily intercourse with all persons. His liberal education 
taught him to look into the records of the past for wisdom, 
and having become specially familiar with Greek and Ro- 
man history, he studied their best patriots as favorite models. 
His mind did not rest upon tiie mere facts and circumstances 
of historical detail. He regarded them mainly as they illus- 
trated that w isdom and goodness, which his joyous feelings 
led him to delight in. His mind, after having been, as it 
were, upon the boisterous and tempestuous sea of history, 
would return like the bird of peace to the quiet and joyous 
haven of his own goodness ; and there brood over and nour- 
ish the wise thoughts, that goodness is always instinct with, 
and which all the facts and circumstances of human life do 
but illustrate and confirm, as of paramount importance. In 
this way, his mind was kept in such a free and impartial 
state, that it could not be subjected, for any considerable 



22 

time, to the chance passions, and the conflicting interests of 
his temporary circumstances. He became wise and saga- 
cious by the rich goodness of his own heart ; and this, con- 
nected with a physical constitution of sleepless activity, made 
him the safe depositary, and the watchful guardian of every 
interest that could be committed to him. 

At the age of nineteen and twenty, when a young soldier 
of fortune, he was removed from the restraints of civilized 
life, and surrounded by temptations to intemperance and dis- 
sipation, aided by the almost omnipotent force of public opin- 
ion and public example in the army. A force to which none 
of us would dare subject a child or a friend. But he was kept 
by his love of goodness, with a vestal's purity, from yielding 
to his temptations. This, as a fixed point in his own heart 
from which to reason, gave him great coolness and great 
•clearness in judging of the course of conduct to be pur- 
sued in any emergency. The quick eye of his commander, 
General Wayne, saw how temptations to idleness, to vice, 
to folly fell off from him as though iiis joyous and homefelt 
goodness was an invincible but charmed shield to ward off 
every thing from the serene and sun-lighted calmness of his 
own mind. Therefore, did he repose unbounded confidence 
in him. Think of him, at the age of twenty-two, as placed 
in the command of a Fort, which protected, for thousands 
of miles, the whole Western frontier of the United States, 
and which required not mere courage in defence but inces- 
sant activity, together with patience, and perseverance, and 
diplomatic tact. He was encompassed by active, secret, 
and treacherou{5 foes, who were to be restrained and guided 
more by a power whose justice they saw and whose protec- 
tection they could confide in, than in the mere display of 
warlike courage. From this trial he came forth with such 
honour, as to be placed, at the age of twenty-six, in Con- 
gress to espouse, to project into laws and regulations, and to 
defend the cause of humanity for the great Western section 
of the United States : and that too against the cupidity and 



23 

self-aggrandisement of many, who were supported by money, 
by official station, and by legal enactments confirmed by hab- 
itual usage. Against all these the young man stood up, sus- 
tained by his own love of wide spreading and joyous happi- 
ness, which he saw would in moment burst in upon the great 
wilderness of the West, and make it bud and blossom as 
the rose ; sustained by this, and fortified by his own sense 
of justice, he originated and perfected the plan, which 
wrenched the great West from the hands of ravenous 
speculators or of lordly proprietors, and has filled it with 
joyous families and enterprizing citizens. 

What then could he more natural, than that the sponta- 
neous feeling of the Western people should call upon him, who 
had been their protector and advocate, to be their Governor ; 
which office he bore for thirteen years. It was the rich and 
unbought reward of exalted worth. His mind found de- 
light, a delight congenial to his natural hilarity and good- 
ness of heart in beholding the swelling buds and the opening 
leaves, and the bursting flowers that sprang up in the cabins, 
as they rose on the prairies of the West. In this station he 
cultivated the friendship of the natives. He secured both 
their respect and their confidence. He formed numerous 
treaties with them, as surprising for their wisdom and pru- 
dence, as they were uncompromizing in their justice and 
equity ; and which, without despoiling others, brought 
millions upon millions into our national treasury. 

But savage barbarity could not long brook to see its power 
breaking down, and its will subjected to the natural and 
healthful law of order and justice, which was extending it- 
self under his peaceful administration. Its free ferocity was 
about to be curbed, its unsubdued passions restrained, and 
its rude, vast, unlimited, child-like imaginings controuled. 
These feelings became embodied in the person of Tecum- 
seh and his brother the Prophet, who resolved to roll back 
the tide of population, that was crossing the Allegany moun- 
tains, and with the knife and the tomahawk make the land 



24 

clean of the white man. With such a Governor it was diffi- 
cuk'to find an occasion for open war ; and the Warrior and 
the Prophet were constrained to assume, for t!ie first time in 
Indian diplomacy, the ground that none of the tribes, how- 
ever advantageous to themselves, could separate themselves, 
from the great household of Indian humanity without the 
free and full consent of all the tribes of the West. It was 
the magnificent idea of a despotic mind, which aimed to 
controul a hundred nations by its own will. If the concep- 
tion was grand, the means for effecting it were still more so. 
In the gloomy recesses of minds capacious of such things, the 
Warrior and his Brother sought to bury the hatchet, with 
every hostile tribe, and bind it to their own vast, and stu- 
pendous plan for union in glory, on the one hand, and for 
extirpation and destruction on the other. They summoned 
to their aid the powers of Indian eloquence, the renown 
of Indian warfare, the ferocity of Indian excitement ; and 
they called, and it came at their bidding, the whole mystery 
and power of gloomy supertition over barbaric minds ; and 
with incantations and preternatural delusions they succeeded 
in forming an alliance, which hung for a time, like a cloudy 
tempest of fire and desolation, over the West. The falcon 
eye of Harrison saw this in its origin, and his prudence pre- 
pared for it. As the murmur of its coming fury sighed 
through the wilderness, he resolved, with characteristic ener- 
gy and decision, to meet its tempest, and precipitate 
its hailstones and fire before it had acquired its greatest mag- 
nitude, and its most destructive impetus. This was done on 
the field of Tippecanoe. There the bow of the Warrior was 
broken ; and the Dragon that watched in the hall of su- 
perstition was slain. The cor.ntry was delivered. The 
sleep of the cradle is now unbroken. The harvest of the 
field is now secured. 

Time would fail me to enter into detail concerning his 
success as a commander over the British and Indians, in the 
war of 1812 ; of the manner in which he discharged his du- 



26 

ties as a Senator of the United States, and subsequently as a 
Foreign Ambassador, and of his conduct and bearing as a 
private citizen, and during his prospective elevation to that 
high station to which he vvas called by the voice of the na- 
tion. In them all, is seen a most singular simplicity and puri- 
ty. There are no violations of moral obligation, no stain up- 
on his moral character, no duels, no gusts of passionate feel- 
ing, no acts of sudden oppression. He can be held up for 
contemplation, without solicitude, to our children. There was 
a most rare union of all that could make a man loved, or re- 
spected, or confided in. He had passed through all political 
offices, he had been in all employments, which could try his 
firmness, which could exhaust his patience, which could tempt 
his passion for gain or for power, which could betray his 
prudence, which could lull his watchfulness to a false securi- 
ty, which could bring discredit upon his integrity, and 
which could mar the purity of his christian character. He 
proved himself adequate to every station, and came forth 
clothed with that humility of greatness, and that meekness of 
wisdom, which never attracts to itself the wondering gaze of 
men, for the love of applause ; but is content, having secured 
their approbation, to retire, in the consciousness of having 
deserved it, to the enjoyment of domestic peace, and the quiet 
of natural employments. The most that has been said by 
any one against him is, that the superiority of his goodness 
was more manifest, than his intellectual greatness. Why 
should it not be so ? He vvas not learned, as a retired schol- 
ar, or a deep read professional man. His active life did not 
permit it, nor did he profess that tyrannical will, which seeks 
to bind all minds, over which it can acquire influence, to 
the fiery cur of its own temper, and which commonly passes 
among political men for intellectual superiority. But be it 
so, that his goodness is more conspicuous, than his intellectu- 
al superiority. It was out of goodness itself, that ; this fame 
of universal nature sprang. It is goodness, that governs this 
world. It is the governing quality in the universe of God. 

4 



26 

He, who has it, can govern by the wisdom of goodness. He, 
who has it not, can be only cunning. Not content with be- 
nig good, Adam sought to raise his knowledge above his 
goodness, and brought in ruin upon the race. And such, 
under the providence of a Being, who is goodness itself, 
will always be the ultimate result. Intellectual adroitness 
and temporary expediency may answer for the day, but 
goodness alone will ultimately sway all hearts, and effect all 
praiseworthy objects. The intellectual qualities of our de- 
parted Ptuler were kept in such due subjection to the goodness 
of his heart, that they were not discerned by ordinary obser- 
vers. Like those monuments of Architecture, whose exact- 
ness of proportion and whose beauty of finish seem to dwarf 
them to distant and to superficial observers, but which on 
a nearer view and a closer inspection rise from beauty to ma- 
jesty, and from majesty to sublimity, so the character of this 
man, being now brought home to the eyes and hearts of the 
whole nation, we see the completeness of its proportions 
and admire the greatness of its strength, and the glory of its 
eminent excellence. Death hath rent the veil of his heart, 
and we behold there every good and righteous purpose shroud- 
ed, as it were in a cloud of devotional incense, which seemed, 
in the last days of his life, constantly ascending. 

There is that, which is deeply affecting to every thought- 
ful mind in the religious character of our departed Ruler. 
Like that of Washington's his whole character is unintelligible, 
except on the supposition of a deep and home felt piety. 
They were neither of them ambitious of power, and in their 
hours of retirement and meditation they were not planning 
schemes for personal aggrandizement, or personal gratifica- 
tion. Nor were they devoted to the interests of a party, but 
sought to advance the public interests in such a way as truth 
and justice demanded, and thus to carry society on towards 
its perfection. Their minds could not, therefore, but con- 
stantly recur to that " order, which is heaven's first law," as 
the pre-established law for all permanent happiness, and for 



27 

all pure enjoyment. This could not but be magnified in 
their minds as the source of all good to man, and therefore 
the character, and the Being out of which it sprang was 
worthy the most profound reverence, and the highest adora- 
tion on their part. Were there no facts, in the lives of each, 
showing this in particular acts and habits of secret prayer, 
and in solemn public acts and habits of reverence and adora- 
tion, every reflecting mind would see it must be so in the in- 
ner sanctuary of tiieir hearts. The public character of the 
men, being what it really was, unstained by passion, and 
without the love of power for its own sake, it is not possible, if 
you penetrate, beyond the outer court of oflicial formality, 
to the sanctuary of tiieir thoughts and find them intent on 
good, and thence to the inmost sanctuary of the soul, it is not 
possible, that any thing should be there found except the two 
great tablets of that immutable law, which God has given us, 
the first declaration of which is, ' Thou shalt have no other 
Gods before me.' We all of us feel it would be sacrilege, 
if not blasphemy, to suppose that in this penetralia of their 
bosom these men had erected idols to the crooked and dust 
eating serpents, or the beastly calves of party or ambitious 
adoration. They had no image graven by art and man's de- 
vice. They set themselves against all such, and sought on- 
ly that justice and judgment might be the stability of their 
character and of their acts, for they reverenced above all, 
'Him, who judgeth righteously.' This is abundantly mani- 
fest in the " Farewell address" of the one, and in the " Inau- 
gural address," and in the " Circular" to the several Depart- 
ments of the other. 

There was more of silent thoughtfulness in the former, 
and more of that open communicativeness in the latter, 
which leads to a more ready compliance with the ordinary 
outward habits of religious life. He loved intercourse with 
religious men, he delighted in religious duties, he rejoiced 
in public benevolent acts, such as characterize religious people 



28 

and was ready to give beyond his means to aid in every ex- 
cellent and public object. 

At the age of sixty seven, and just as he was entering his 
high office, he visited the house of liis boy-hood, the room of 
his birth ; he pointed out the closet, where his mother retired 
for private devotion ; the corner of tiie room, where she sat 
to read her Bible, and taught him on his knees, to say " Our 
Father, who art in Heaven." The letter to his wife, dated 
on the morning of his inauguration, shows that, in his closet, 
he had been seeking the requisite wisdom and strength, which 
cometh from above, for the high duties and responsibilities of 
that day. Its morning light found him like Solomon, as he 
entered upon his kingly authority communing with God and 
saying " I am but a little child, I know not how to go out or 
to come in, and thy servant is in the midst of thy people, 
which thou has chosen ; a great people that cannot be num- 
bered and counted for multitude. Give, therefore, thy ser- 
vant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may 
discern between the good and bad." Look at the '-' Inaugu- 
ral address" and at the " Circular" sent to the different de- 
partments of the government, and you may see with what 
righteous integrity he sought to discern between the good and 
the bad. His home was known as a house of quietness and 
devotion on the sabbath, intrusive company were excluded-; 
and the word of God, the word of wisdom and of love, the 
word of knowledge and of understanding was his daily study. 
O, how like unto the great ruler of Israel, who said, "Thy 
word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. 
Through thy precepts I get understanding and, therefore, I 
hate every false way. Thy statutes are my songs in the house 
of my pilgrimage." 

The loss ot such a ruler is indeed a national calamity, so 
far as our weak faith can understand. But " The Lord 
hath purjjosed it to stain the pride of all glory and to bring 
into contempt all the honourable of the earth," that we may 
know that He is God, and that he will not give his glory to 



29 

another. Let us then, with grateful feehngs, treasure up the 
memory of those virtues, which have been so unexpectedly 
removed from our sight ; and,\vith deep humility, mourn over 
that confidence, which we have placed in man and that trust, 
which we have exercised in our own plans, and which has 
been so resignally rebuked in this event. The great and the 
good has fallen ; and while we stand around the opened 
grave, which buries our Iiopes, let us cry, " Our Father, 
our Father, be thou our rod and our staff, our shield and our 
buckler, our sure defence. Then " will not we fear, though 
the earth be removed, a.id though the mountains be carried 
into the midst of the sea." 



30 

NOTE— Pa^e 13. 

Good men of quiet tempers have, at all periods, sought to allay the bit- 
terness of party strife. But many have supposed the only way to do this 
was to keep in such ignorance of political principles and of political rela- 
tions, as to make it impossible to form an opinion on such matters; or ut- 
terly to refuse to express that opinion, either by speech, or by the perform- 
ance of those duties, which grow out of tlie rights of citizenship. Doubt- 
less every right-minded man should considerately regard the time, place, 
and manner of exercising any particular right by the performance of the 
duties it involves ; and seek to avoid, not only evil, but, as far as may be, 
the appearance of evil. But he displays little knowledge of human so- 
ciety, and no foresight, who supposes that his own forbearance, to exercise 
his rights by the performance of the duties, which fealty to the constitu- 
tion requires, will produce unity of principle and unity of action in the 
mass of society. This unity cannot come from the forbearance of the 
members of the State towards each other ; but from the reception, and the 
belief of political truths in which all agree, in distinction, from an adhe- 
rence to the particular notions, and the individual opinions, which each 
happens to form of the men, or the measures of the day. It is by clearly 
seeing and constantly upholding these political truths, that unity in spirit 
is produced, and the bond of peace cemented. It is by the belief in such, 
that some men are capable of an earnest love for their country, and an 
honest zeal for the welfare of its institutions, who are not, and who will 
not be made convenient tools for other men to use for party purposes. 

That there are such political truths, which are consciously or uncon- 
sciously received by the people as a whole, no man doubts, who hear- 
tily believes in the possibility of the self-government of the nation. 
And the man, who does not heartily believe this, may well inquire by what 
right, asserted in his own conscience, he calls himself an American citi 
zen, or on what just ground he holds fealty to the constitution of his coun- 
try. And yet there are men, and some so blinded as perhaps not to 
know it is true of themselves, who are faithless concerning the existence 
of political truths, in which the people at large believe. He, who thinks 
that men are to be guided or governed by arraying one class against 
another, has no faith in there being political truths, in which all 
agree and that by giving full scope and influence to them, harmoni- 
ous and healthful action would take place. He does not seek to ex- 
plain in a logical and intelligent way, the unconscious principles, which 
are at the bottom of the desires of all honest men for good government, 
and for just and purifying institutions. But he arrays man against his fel- 
low, and teaches hate and opposition to classes of men, not because they 
are personally bad, but because they happen to be lawyers or clergymen, 
mechanics or farmers, merchants or bankers. By his willingness thus to 



31 

do evil, that good may come, he shows his want of faith in the good. 
There is a more excellent way than this ; and that is, with kind pa- 
tience, but with honest fearlessness, to show up those political truths, 
which the people are ready to act upon, but which it requires their 
"sober second thought," to understand how to apply in all cases. It 
is a political truth, in which all men agree, that there is no man, who 
wishes to submit,' or who will submit, except by a necessity, which he 
cannot control, to be governed by men because they are rich ; nor on the 
other hand, is there any man, who will submit to be governed by men be- 
cause they are poor. The same may be affirmed of any other class or 
classes in the community. And he, therefore, that would array the one 
against the other, for the purpose of governing them, has no faith in the 
existence of political truths in virtue of which the people are united under 
one form of political existence. It is another political truth in which all 
men agree, that government is not organized for the men who hold office, 
be they Kinijs, Lords or Commons, or Presidents, Senators, and Representa- 
tives, and therefore that the power of government is not to be applied to 
benefit the selfish wishes of the office bearers. It is also another political 
truth, that government is intended to bo an organization for the public 
weal ; res puhlica., a thing for the public, that is, an organization by which 
the members of the state have their rights both as men, and as citizens, se- 
cured to thorn, that the nation man obtain the highest happiness, and the 
greatest purity, that l)elongs to social existence. It is by keeping these 
and such like truths, before the people, and awakening that unity of feel- 
ing, which they inspire, that we may hope to mitigate the evils of party 
dissensions. And if those, who give attention to political matters, would seek 
to understand more fully, than many do the truths and principles uncon- 
sciously involved in the desires of all honest men for good government, 
and to explain them, so that the nation should become conscious of them, it 
would greatl}' allay tlie feverish heat of party strife. It would induce a 
mutual confidence, and a feeling of unity, which would issue in harmoni- 
ous action, and produce the happiest fruits. But so long as men rank 
themselves as party men, and ascribe to their opponents' all the evil inten- 
tions that they suppose has existed under the various forms of the most ini- 
quitous governments, so long will political truths be disregarded or misun- 
derstood, and the community will be swayed hither and thither by a class 
of names, and nothing but names. We have renounced the rights of pri- 
mogeniture and all the ancestral glory or excellence, that others ascribe to 
it; we are neither of York nor Lancaster, we wear neither the White Rose 
nor the Red, but still we are willing to gain the glory of a political pedigree 
by tracing our opinions to a connection with those of some warrior or states- 
man, or sage of the Revolution, and, prefixing his name to our party, strive 
to shelter the nakedness of our own opinions, under the majesty of his robe. 



32 

Instead of thiri, why may we not spend our strength in unfolding and ex- 
plaining those political truths, which are the ground of our well being and 
the source of our happiness; and thus produce that unity of spirit, and 
that bond of peace, which is the perfection of social existence. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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